Social media flap roils Waterford fire service

One department’s Instagram account was deleted by members of another

Waterford — A member of the Jordan Fire Co. last month deleted an Instagram account the Cohanzie Fire Co. had been using, prompting town officials and police to open investigations and leading to an outcry from the parents of those involved.

The incident dates to Feb. 24, when Steven Frischling, a local photographer who was named the Cohanzie department’s public information officer two weeks ago, noticed the waterford_fire_co5 Instagram page had been deleted. Frischling has been running the account for more than a year, using it to spread positive messages about the department and ideally to attract younger members. The page has nearly 1,000 followers.

Frischling is a former free-lance photographer for The Day.

Despite Frischling’s involvement, someone else launched the account several years ago — the same person, it turns out, who deleted the account last month in the company of four fellow Jordan firefighters.

That person is Peter Ewing, who volunteers for the Jordan company now but used to do so for Cohanzie. According to an email sent to Cohanzie fire Chief Todd Branche, Ewing was with Austin Rheaume, John Campbell, Mitchell Clapsadle and a minor when the account was deleted. All five were on leave for about two weeks as the town and police investigated the incident.

The Day left various messages for the four adult firefighters, only Rheaume responded Monday.

Speaking by phone last week, Brian Rheaume, Austin’s father, said Ewing deleted the account — an account still attached to Ewing — because he was concerned some of the photos violated federal medical law. The senior Rheaume said the photos in question showed the faces of victims of car crashes.

At the Jordan firehouse Monday, Austin Rheaume repeated the same reasoning in the company of Heather Martin, mother of the involved minor. The two of them ended the interview a short time later, when The Day explained that it was the town, not Branche, that involved police. They said that information conflicted with what they had been told and they wanted to learn more before saying anything else.

Frischling said he has digitally removed patients’ faces in the past out of sensitivity, but added that federal medical law doesn’t prohibit someone who’s not in the medical field from taking photos of vehicles — and the people in them — on public roads. It’s less clear how such laws would apply to a social media account using the moniker of a fire department that provides medical services.

Since the Instagram deletion, Brian Rheaume has been vocal on Facebook, calling into question the way the Cohanzie company operates and wondering why five people were placed on leave when just one deleted an account. Rheaume also noted there’s no official policy governing social media that the town or the Cohanzie chief could say the young firefighters violated.

Rheaume comes from a family that has been involved with the fire service in various ways for 30 years, he said.

The senior Rheaume acknowledged that Ewing could have taken several other steps, such as changing the password, or asking Frischling to desist if there was a potentially law-breaking post. Still, Rheaume said he is appalled the investigation into the incident took so long.

Launched not long after the account was deleted in late February, the town’s investigation wrapped up in midMarch. First Selectman Dan Steward said the delay happened because of issues scheduling interviews with involved parties, but Rheaume said the firefighters were told they’d only be off the job for a couple of days.

“I don’t want this to happen to the kids again,” Rheaume said, quickly acknowledging most of them aren’t actually children. “Three of the five are qualified to enter burning buildings and had to sit out all of these nor’easters. Ultimately it hurt the residents of the town.”

No formal discipline

Upon learning the account had been deleted, Branche, the Cohanzie chief, contacted Waterford human resources personnel and the director of fire services, who in turn asked all five Jordan firefighters not to report to work pending an investigation.

Branche, upset about what appeared to him to be an attempt to hurt his department, also posted a sign outside the station banning the five firefighters from the premises. Rheaume took issue with that, calling it an attempt to damage the reputations of those named. The sign has since been taken down.

According to Steward, the town conducted interviews and reviewed surveillance video in its investigation of the five Jordan company firefighters. That’s how it learned Ewing deleted the account from a room within the Jordan headquarters as the others looked on.

Toward the end of the week of March 11, Steward said, the town allowed all five members to continue volunteering.

“Once the interviews were completed, we basically said ‘don’t do it again,’” Steward said.

None of the five was formally disciplined.

At the request of the town — not Branche, as some social media posts have suggested — police also looked into the matter to see whether Ewing committed a crime by deleting an account being handled by a fire department. Last week, Police Chief Brett Mahoney said officers found no criminal aspect to the case and as such will not be releasing it.

‘It’s not just a playhouse’

On March 6, after much legwork, the Cohanzie Instagram account was restored. Four days prior to that, Heather Martin, mother of the involved minor, had called on the town to investigate Branche for alleged harassment.

In a letter she sent to Bruce Miller, the director of fire services, Martin said Branche on Feb. 25 called Clapsadle, who is one of the involved firefighters but is not Martin’s son. Martin said Branche threatened Clapsadle during the conversation and alluded that her son, the minor, would have trouble getting work in Waterford in the future. Martin further accused Branche of “malicious gossip and libel.” She asked Miller to investigate Branche’s “appalling behavior.”

On Thursday, Branche denied those claims and provided an email chain from that day in which Clapsadle reached out to him.

At 3:16 p.m. Feb. 25, Clapsadle emailed Branche, saying that he and the other three adult firefighters “realized (deleting the account) was a big mistake” and weren’t thinking about how much time Frischling had put into it. After a neutral back-and-forth, Clapsadle asked Branche if he would like to meet “to try to resolve this problem.” Branche then asked Clapsadle to call him, which Clapsadle did. The conversation that followed was cordial, Branche said.

Steward said to his knowledge the town did not open an investigation into Branche after receiving Martin’s letter — a fact Brian Rheaume found odd considering how quickly the town placed the Jordan firefighters on leave.

“People need to realize there’s consequences to some actions,” Steward said. “These are young people who care about fire services, and we hope they can continue, but they need to know they have to be appropriate. It’s not just a playhouse at the firehouse.”

Going forward

Branche, who said he only spoke for himself and the members of Cohanzie, said the social media firestorm over the last few weeks has “been like the worst time in my life.”

“I have been in the fire service for 30 years,” he said. “I have a lot of experience and training and for them to totally discredit me with falsehoods is beyond anything I would ever think.”

Branche said the firefighters involved in deleting the Instagram account all were “members of my company at one time or another, and I’ve supported them” in the past.

He argued some of the firefighters were influenced by parents and other relatives, and claimed the ruckus was tied to efforts of union firefighters to expand in the area. Many who spoke out against him on social media, he pointed out, are connected to the union in some way.

“They want to grow their thing and discredit the volunteers,” said Branche, who has been chief for four years.

Last week, Steward sat down with Brian Rheaume and the other four parents to hear their concerns after learning some of them had taken to social media over the ordeal.

Rheaume said the meeting left him wary but hopeful that the ordeal would lead to overall changes in the professionalism and organization of Waterford fire services. A combination of full-time paid, part-time paid and volunteer firefighters staff the town’s five fire companies, with the paid employees being members of a bargaining unit. The staffing of the stations and the rules governing each have been points of contention for years.

Steward said he wishes the parents had chosen a forum other than Facebook, where misinformation easily spreads, if they felt their children shouldn’t have been placed on leave or temporarily banned from the Cohanzie station.

“I felt we came to a reasonable understanding, for the most part,” Steward said of the meeting. “We all protect our children.”